Alfred woodhouse



(No Model.)

A. WOODHOUSE. APPARATUS FOR THE AMALGAMATION OF GOLD.

No.. 416,390. Patented Dec. 3, 1889.

HLFR'ED WOOOHOUSE,

w @z F M M W \iillllilillilillrll 1% MW Wdnesses r UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED WOODHOUSE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS THE AMALGAMATION OF GOLD.

SPECIFICATION forming partmf Letters Patent No. 416,390, dated December 3, 1889. Application filed March 11, 1889- Serial No. 302,843. (No model.) Patented in England April 18, 1887, No. 5,627.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED WooDHoUsE, a resident of London, England, and a subject of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for the Amalgamation of Gold, (patented to me in Great Britain and Ireland under No. 5,627, and date April 18, 1887,) of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to apparatus for effooting the amalgamation of gold from its crushed ores, and is designed to effect that amalgamation more perfectly by direct contact without mechanical agitation.

My apparatus comprises an amalgamating-box of novel construction, which is preferably combined in series with certain other devices, as hereinafter described.

In order that my invention may be better understood, I now proceed to describe the same in relation to the drawings hereunto annexed, reference being had to the letters marked thereon.

Figure 1 is a general sectional elevation of a complete gold-amalgamating mill. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation of my improved amalgamating-box on the line A B.

Fig. 3 is a part sectional plan of the same on the line C D. Fig. 4: shows in detail the baf fle-plates with check-gates.

The ore is first to be crushed or reduced to fine powder by any known mill or pulverizer a, and the crushed products are, after admixture with mercury, washed by a suitable stream of water to effect a uniform delivery into acanister-or box Z), provided with a perforated bottom, which, if of copper, is either amalgamated in the usual way or electroplated with silver. The crushed ore is thence delivered upon a dropping amalgamator or silvered copper table 0 with return incline and provided with a retaining-lip at the lower edge. Thence the amalgamated ore is discharged over the usual known rilfies with or without splash or guide boards and inclined plane or planes d d, amalgamated or silvered, a continuous plane formed with. a corrugated surface being preferred. The corrugations may be either ordinary rounded waves, or with sharp apices, or with serrations, to more eifectively catch the amalgamated gold, the corrugations being transverse to the fiow of the ore. I find corrugations two or three inches apart with a quarter-inch known devices-I use an amalgamating-box on divided chamber 6, of suitable materialsuch as copper, amalgamated or silvered on both sides. I construct this chamber or box as follows, and as shown in detail in Figs. 2 and 3. The box or chamber is made with a wooden frame and is divided by a series of vertical plates f f, which are placed transversely to the flow of the amalgamated ore, and which are conveniently dropped into corresponding saw-cuts in the wooden frame. They are provided with orifices g g with side projecting faces or wings h h, the orifices being so arranged as to flank and baffie each other in the successive check-gates, being placed about two to three inches apart. I make these orifices as follows: The strips are about three inches deep. I cut slits in the form of a T, two inches high and two inches wide and four inches apart from center to center, and bend back the wings until they present an opening about one-half an inch in Width, as in Fig. 4:. I may further use any suitable number of riffies among or beyond these check-gates, if required. A slope must be given to this box, so that the fiuid rises above the top of the T-cut and yet does not rise to overflow the strip.

By the combination of all or several of these devices I seek to effect as perfect an amalgamation as possible of the pulverized gold ore by direct contact with the mercury as it flows through the said apparatus without mechanical agitation.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is 1. In an amalgamating apparatus for separating gold from pulverized ore, the combination, in series, of the canister 19, the dropping-amalgamator 0, suitable riifies d, and an amalgamating-box e, the latter divided by a series of vertical plates, which are transverse those of one plate alternating with those of to the flow of the ore and are provided at the next, and having lateral wings on the debottom with orifices which alternate in snclivery side at each orifice, substantially as cessive plates, and with lateral wings on the hereinbefore specified.

5 5 delivery side at each orifice, substantially as In testimonywhereof I have signed my name hereinbefore specified. to this specification in the presence of two 2. The within-described amalgamating-box, subscribing witnesses. composed of an inclined frame in the form of ALFRED VVOODHOU SE.

a shallow trough, and a series of vertical Witnesses: I0 plates which are transverse to the flow of the SAM. P. WILDING,

ore and are provided at bottom with orifices, RICHARD A. HOFFMANN. 

